1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a surgical cannula or access port. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a surgical cannula having a multiangle duckbill seal.
2. Background of Related Art
During certain surgical procedures it is often necessary to inflate a body cavity in order to create a working space. In order to insert surgical instruments into the working space, access ports are needed to seal about the surgical instruments and prevent escape of the inflation fluids. Cannulas are surgical access ports used in conjunction with surgical instruments to perform surgical operations within the body of a patient. A cannula typically includes a housing having an elongate tubular member extending from the housing and one or more valves or seals positioned within the housing for sealing about the surgical instruments.
An instrument seal is provided within the housing and includes a small opening for sealing about the surgical instrument. In order to prevent the escape of inflation fluids through the small opening of the instrument seal in the cannula in the absence of a surgical instrument, there is provided a duckbill valve seal having a pair of opposed, inwardly angled plates or flaps which meet at opposed edges. Inflation pressure traveling back up through the elongate tubular member of the cannula forces the opposed flaps together to prevent escape of the inflation fluids through the housing.
During many surgical procedures it is often necessary to repeatedly insert the same or different instruments through the cannula. In some instances, this can cause wear and tear problems with the duckbill seal due to the angle of the flaps and the materials used to form the duckbill seal.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a cannula having a duckbill seal including flaps oriented to reduce wear problems due to repeated insertion of surgical instruments. It is additionally desirable to provide a cannula having a duckbill seal formed of a material chosen to reduce wear problems.